Melanoma is one of the most common cancers in Australian and United States populations. In the United States, 76,380 new cases of invasive melanoma are estimated to be diagnosed in 2016. In 2016, it is estimated that 10,130 people will die of melanoma. The annual cost of treating melanoma is estimated as $3.3 billion. Therefore, besides being fatal, melanoma can affect multiple stages of a societal fabric.
While melanoma can be a fatal disease, it can be treated fully when detected early, by for example, an excisional biopsy. Typically, early detection of melanoma in a skin mole or other lesion is assessed by the presence/absence of certain features in the mole or other lesion. These examinations are usually formed as defined protocols used by health care professionals. There exist several such protocols such as, for example, “ABCD Rule”, “Menzies Rule”, “3 point checklist”, etc. Common features across these different protocols can include the presence of certain “colors” (brown, black, red, etc.) and/or patterns (networks, globules, etc.). When examined under dermoscopy or other clinical imagery, health care professionals look for signatures and assign a score to the mole or other lesion. The decision to perform a biopsy occurs if the score exceeds a predefined threshold, the value of which may vary depending on rules and/or protocols.
In general, the first point of contact for assessing skin moles or other lesions are individuals in the general population (e.g., the patients or their family members), nurses or general practitioners, who are not experts or specialists in the field of dermatology or skin cancer. Early detection of melanoma can be very important, resulting, for example, in a 95% to 97% 5 to 10 year survival rate when skin cancer early detection takes place. However, assessing fatal or critical cancerous lesions can be a difficult exercise for the non-expert, and experts are not always readily available, especially in some remote areas. Moreover, individuals may not be aware of the benefits of early detection, and their appointments to see specialists about their skin may not be kept or scheduled too far apart.